Cumbria are set to renew acquaintances with Herefordshire on Sunday in the latest NCCA Trophy game being played at Cockermouth.
The two have not met in this competition since 2013 but this will be the seventh time they have come up against each other. The visitors have a narrow advantage so far with three wins to two, while one scheduled clash was abandoned.
Cumbria got their campaign off to a good start last Sunday with a win against Lincolnshire at Scunthorpe while Herefordshire lost to Oxfordshire.
Cumbria make two changes to the 12 with regulars Gary Pratt and Nathan Waterston returning after being unavailable last weekend.
Matt Pardoe, the Herefordshire captain, is unavailable, and so too is his deputy Nick Hammond who is injured. If you add in a couple of younger players not travelling due to university exams, they have a number of enforced changes to their team from last week.
Top scorers in that five wicket defeat were stand-in captain Barney Morgan (44no) and Zain ul Hassan (60) who both play on Sunday.
The county has close ties with Worcestershire Academy so it is not surprising that half of their team have First Class County 2nd XI experience. Perhaps unusually, these days in the NCCA, Zain ul Hassan is their only player to have represented a first class county – with just a single List A appearance in 2018.
Cumbria’s 12 are: Michael Slack (Carlisle, captain), Nathan Waterston (Furness), Gary Pratt (Richmondshire), Sam Dutton (Furness), Matthew Sempill (Cockermouth), Marcus Stables (Nantwich), Paul Hindmarch (Keswick), Finlay Richardson (Netherfield, wk), Nico Watt (Carlisle),
Brodie Glendinning (Newcastle), Matthew Siddall (Cockermouth). James McGown (Keswick).
Herefordshire: Barney Morgan (capt), Conor Smith, Jujhar Johal, Jake Rowe, Shameer Ahmed, James Rudge, Zak Abbas, Luke Powell (wk), Zain ul Hassan, Elliot Mason, Awais Mohammed.
Play at Cockermouth is scheduled to begin at 11am.
